Prologue: The Playground Fate
The playground was where it all began. A simple slide, a swing set, and two children whose names meant nothing to each other yet whose futures would forever be intertwined. Fyang, a spirited little girl full of fire, and Jarren, a charming boy with a smile that could light up any room, met at that fateful place when they were just five years old. Their mothers, long-lost friends from their teenage years, unknowingly reunited as their children ran, played, and unknowingly formed the bond that would define their lives.
Yet, neither of them knew that then. Years later, in the haze of university life, their paths crossed once again, bringing with it a new layer of friendship, mischief, and something neither could admit-a love that had been quietly growing in the background.
But the road to love is never simple, and for Fyang and Jarren, it would take time, misunderstandings, jealousy, and the intervention of friends to reveal what had always been there.
Henley agrees to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for a fee, falling in love as she wonders - how is he involved in her brother's false conviction?
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Henley Linden's brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and she'll take any job to raise the money needed to free him. Soon, she's agreed to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for ten thousand dollars, so his mother will ease up the pressure on him to find a wife. But once Henley is enmeshed in Bennett's world, he falls for her, and she starts to have feelings for him as well. Despite her romance with Bennett, as she grows closer to the Calloways, Henley realizes they are somehow involved in her brother's conviction. Journeying deeper into a world of wealth and conspiracies, Henley is forced to rely on Bennett, though doing so could cost her everything.
[[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]